Naturopathic Physicians are the bridge between western medicine and alternative medicine techniques since we have our training in both. Our philosophies include a belief in the healing power of nature, treating the cause rather than the symptoms, "First Do No Harm," and most importantly, treating the whole person. Body, Mind, and Spirit. Naturopaths use the role of doctor as it was originally meant to be, as a teacher. The scope of practice in Washington State allows naturopaths to perform physical exams, order labs and other diagnostic studies and make a diagnoses. We have prescriptive authority for almost all oral pharmaceuticals and bio-identical hormones.

People in this country have been trained by the Western Medical model to believe that good health care is slapping a label on the symptoms and prescribing the corresponding bottle of pills. Many people sit in my office and expect me to slap a label on their symptoms and give them a bottle of "natural" pills thinking that is good natural health care. For an acute condition like a cold or flu, that is perfectly acceptable. However, for most ongoing chronic conditions that would be too simplistic of an approach if you want to get to resolution and lasting, sustainable results-not palliation (symptom suppression or non-curative care). A label or diagnosis often doesn't provide useful information to the naturopath. We are trained to look for the causes of symptoms and poor health. This is a much grayer, more subtle and often more complex arena.

People ARE complex and many factors (genetics, lifestyle, emotional health) play into their overall health and level of function. Different approaches or therapeutics need to be used for different aspects. As I work with each aspect, my goal is to "REMOVE OBSTACLES TO CURE."

Aspects of Health

The aspects I look at go beyond the alternative medicine's body/mind/spirit or the standard differential diagnosis of the Western medical world. Right fuel (food), brain body connection, good structure, biochemical/lab evaluation, toxicities and infections and 'other' (in which I include the emotional, spiritual, relationship, exercise and other lifestyle) influences, are the aspects I evaluate for their impact on your health.

The treatment or therapy for one aspect is not overlapping, and cannot be a substitution for another aspect, just as you could not build a house with just electrical wiring-you need structural support and walls and plumbing and fasteners to hold the walls in place. Unlike a house, your health is a dynamic process, not a static state. It is the sum of the resiliency and ability of each aspect to address the challenges life presents that equals your overall health.

RIGHT FUEL FOR YOUR SYSTEM - Food Pharmacy is nutritional software that uses your date, such as food allergies, blood type, metabolic and endocrine type, and current health issues to create a customized health promoting food plan designed uniquely for you. It is highly recommended you avoid all GMO food from your diet.

GOOD STRUCTURE - Advanced Biostructural Correction (ABC) technique is my body work technique. . Developed by Dr. Jutkowitz, DC, who figured out why chiropractic fails so often, ABC realigns bodies consistently and predictably. ABC has some unique techniques which support the body's unwinding process and gets it to it's best structural (and hence functional) alignment without dangerous moves. I have come to term ABC anti-aging adjusting. You will have better posture, without effort, breath deeper and have better mobility and range of motion. It gets your body moving like it did when you were youthful. The Rand Corporation looked at people who were having difficulties in their 50's and 60' and noted that the issues BEGAN in their 30's and 40's. So while ABC gets people out of pain, I have come to view it as preventative medicine for your future physical abilities.[box] Posture relating to health quote here[/box]

BRAIN BODY CONNECTION - Neurological Integration System (NIS) - your brain takes in information (from internal and external environments) and organizes a response. If the brain is offline, then it doesn't matter if you use the best diet, best supplement, best prayer, or positive thoughts, it will not be taken in and used appropriately. NIS finds where the brain is not in control of the organization and reestablishes neurological integration.

TOXICITES - can be caused by heavy metals, solvents, pesticides, and preservatives and additives in foods and personal care products.

EMOTIONAL/SPIRITUAL/RELATIONSHIP/EXERCISE although I do not treat these in my office, I am aware of the impact they have on one's overall health, and I try to link people up with a good resource for them.

The better I am able to address and optimize each aspect, the fewer bottles of pills I need to have people take, and the more profound the results. The aspects I consider FOUNDATIONAL are the Food Pharmacy, Neurolink, and Advanced Biostructural Correction (ABC). Each is key in its own way to optimizing your genetic potential for health. It is important to note that I cannot predict or test for what will change when these are applied, but I have seen enough conditions clear up, that now I like to employ these first and then use other things, supplements, etc, to clean up what is left.

I carry professional line products to insure high quality and purify for best results.

Advanced Biostructural Correction

Anti-Aging Adjusting-for a body that works as good as it used to-or better. ABC is different and profoundly effective but a little hard to wrap your brain around at first. When I ask my clients what is the difference between the chiropractic care they have received in the past and ABC a common response is “THIS WORKS”

30 visits-the transformation has begun and you want to see how much better it gets.

Advanced BioStructural Correction Technique-fixes bodies if the problem isn’t due to cancer, fracture, infections and the like. Notice I don’t include disk herniations. Disks can come and go. MRI’s have been around long enough that they have followed people over time and noticed that disks can resolve on there own. I also used to work in an office that used to do a lot personal injury cases-everyone got an MRI. And there wasn’t a clear correlation between the MRI images and how the person felt. Meaning someone with a lousy looking MRI would be walking around without pain issues and someone with a beautiful looking MRI would be in a lot of pain. Notice also that I didn’t list “getting older.” Aches and pains and limiting function and activities and blaming it on getting older is not something I am willing to accept for myself and suggest you do the same. More years means more opportunities to acquire more twists and tweaks and compensations- nothing to do inherently with the age of the system. True, you probably haven’t been able to find effective treatment that improves your function-but with ABC it is possible. In fact, that is what happens.

MY OLDER CLIENTELE-this has been a rewarding group to work with. Each week they are getting a little straighter, their neck looks longer, they get a waistline, their shoulders are back, they don’t move like old people. And to my eyes they are looking younger and younger.

BENEFITS I HAVE NOTICED

My feet are straight and not V’d. My hammer head toes are uncurling-on one side only so far (and the toe nails are getting healthier looking), I don’t feel jarred when walking, going downhill, running. (When in alignment the body is a pretty good shock absorber). I don’t scuff my heels any more when walking. I can take big steps and walk fast for long distances, something my old alignment wouldn’t allow for. I can stand straighter with ease while feeling more balanced and relaxed. My jaw doesn’t pop and tracks smoother. I’m not clenching me teeth. I can breathe through my nose easier. My neck doesn’t grind when turning. The ringing in my ears is gone. The about once a month headache I used to get is just a memory. When I am carrying a purse, it doesn’t feel like it is weighting me down-my shoulder stay even and don’t really feel the weight of the purse. My back doesn’t get sore after walking long distances. I can sleep on my right and left side(whereas there was just something irritating about lying on my left side in the past). Chronically tight muscles are not tight any more. The numb feeling in part of my back is slowly coming to life. I have more flexibility and range of motion in my spine and IT JUST FEELS GOOD TO MOVE. And these aren’t even the things I had the expectation of getting better. It was the shoulder pain and the upper back pain and the usual suspects. Any more getting people out of pain is the low ball goal-I expect that. The real gem to me is the overall improvement in function. THE BODY THAT WORKS BETTER THAN YOU CAN REMEMBER IT WORKING! I still have a ways to go and it’s not always fun-my neck bothered me for three months while my hip and leg worked something out. So when you are looking globally at how your whole body is feeling you get willing to put up with some pain for the gains.

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE-After you have been getting ABC treatments and you have done some unwinding, if you do take a spill or get into and accident your risk of injury DECREASES. A tight body falls and breaks. A loose body rolls with the punches. Other ABC clients and other ABC practitioners have been pleasantly surprised when they walk away with not much more than the bruises that the accident caused and they know that in the past that same incident would have laid them out for a while.

ABC was synthesized by Dr. Jesse Jutkowitz, DC. He had a background in engineering, went to chiropractic school, got out in the real world working with clients and starting asking himself why this adjusting stuff doesn’t work anywhere near as good as they told him it would in school. Thus he began his journey to find a way to consistently and predictably fix bodies. He studied lots of techniques and when he couldn’t get them to work in his office, he went to the instructors office-and found out the instructor wasn’t doing the technique as taught or was doing something else.

One of the people he studied was the work of Dr. Alf Breig, a neurosurgeon. Dr. Breig had the theory of cervical cord traction. What he discovered was that when nerves are stretched they start acting up. He began by having people lie(for weeks and months) on strategically placed and sized pillow designed to take the tension off the spinal cord---and he got great results all sorts of neurological conditions-ALS, MS, intractable pain, and although I don’t think the term was used back when Breig started, fibromyalgia. Since he was a neurosurgeon, he developed a surgical technique which involved attaching a cord to the base of the skull, threading it down the neck and attaching it to the upper back, tethering the neck in place to take the tension of the spinal cord. A newer term for this is ‘tethered cord symdrome.’ It is an actual ICD-9 diagnosis code. Dr. Yamada, a neurosurgeon has been researching this----------------put in yomada’s s/sx of tcs------------

Being a chiropractor and engineer, Dr. Jutkowitz thought there may be a way to address the menengial tension structurally. He developed a technique that stretches the menegies by putting a stretch between the base of the skull and the first vertebra.

In studying the mechanics of the body Dr. Jutkowitz observed that there are certain bones that can get out of position in a manner in which the body does not have the musculature to pull it back in place. These we call primary biomechanical breakdowns (PBB). These PBB’s are what I am finding and fixing in the office. Basically, in the spine we are talking about when a vertebra goes anterior. When you get a vertebra that has moved forward, it makes your body more unstable and the rest of your body shifts and moves (compensates) to keep you upright. And you keep gathering more and more of these as you go along.

Why I learned this technique:

Naturopathic manipulations are part of ND training and included in the scope of the law in Washington State. However, in class we were instructed in the set up, but weren’t allowed to do the actual adjustment because they didn’t want us to hurt anyone! So I never did adjustments because I didn’t want to hurt anyone. In ABC, you do not do any of the dangerous moves-no rotation of the neck and no p to a adjusting. It is known in the chiropractic community that people who are adjusted by having there vertebra pushed forward in the thoracic (chest) region have an increased risk of stroke and heart attacks.

When I got out of school and into practice, I often asked my self how come the stuff they taught us in school –tested us on-didn’t work that well in real life. So I too took lots of continuing education and technique classes and didn’t find much of it useful or applicable. I became open minded but highly skeptical. I don’t jump on any bandwagons or fads. I investigate and try out new things and only keep that which proves itself to me.

One day I got something in the mail about this adjusting technique-fixes bodies predictably and consistently…get amazing result…well, I wasn’t about to spend the time and money on something I knew nothing about. So I emailed Dr. Jutkowitz and asked if anyone in my area was using this technique because I wanted to try it out on me first. He sent me a long list on name and I called several of them and asked if I could be treated t this ABC stuff. To summarize the response I got 'We don’t use the technique and the guy is too full of himself. '(Chiropractors saying someone is too full of himself…….). There was one doctor in Lakewood, Dr. Lorie Plaisance, who agreed to see me using just the ABC.

I had been treated by various chiropractors with various techniques over the years and never got to resolution on symptoms-more of the chiropractic merry go round. Gets a little better gets a little worse, gets a little better-and the better was just less annoying, not better function of feeling good.

What I remember about my first ABC session was that I felt guilty about making her work so hard-because she started from the base of my skull went down to my toes and then started over again. That’s just the protocol but I didn’t know that-

I can’t remember how many sessions into thing-within a very few-2 to 3, I started noticing that things felt different after an ABC adjustment.

After a while I started, before I knew that they could be messing up the work that ABC was doing, I would get appointments with other DC that I had referred to and been treated by and tell them how good the techniques was. And they tried not to roll there eyes and quickly changed the subject because they have been to too many seminars.

So when Dr. Plaisance decided to move to Silverdale, I knew I would drive out there to get treated, but since getting my clients to go to Lakewood was hard enough I didn’t think any one would go to Silverdale. One day she said I should learn this technique and she would help me. I did my first MR on her…..

So I learned how to fix bodies using ABC. It has been very gratifying to see resolution in people symptoms in a few visits-often huge improvements after just one. Even though many have been to many practitioners.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF ABC

-the body is not totally self correcting. If it was there would be no need for any type of health care and no one would ever die.

In terms of ABC, bones can go out of position in a manner in which there are no muscles to pull them back into place. In the spine, bones can move anterior.

These anteriors, which cannot be realigned with out some outside help are termed primary biomechanical breakdown. In order to stay upright, the body has to make compensations to the PBB’s. So, ABC corrects what the body cannot and leaves the rest for the body to unwind on its own.

Menengial release-the menengies are a connective tissue that attached to the back of the skull, wrap around the brain and the spinal cord and attach to the tail bone. If these are stuck or twisted, adjustments don’t hold and resolution of symptoms is not achieved. This is also an explanation for symptom all down one side of the body, which the neurologist can’t explain---the menegies on that side of the body are being stretched. That’s also why you can get resolution of things like irritable bladder with this technique.

1st rib maneuver-shifts the rib cage backwards, allowing for easier and deeper breathing. This alone can have a dramatic impact on asthma.

Unwinding—more can go on in between visits than during a visit as your body begins to let go of the compensations. With unwinding you’re using your own muscles to move things back into place. Unwinding can be sounding like rice crispies when you move, feeling a little klutzy and awkward, something starts bothering you out of the blue for no apparent reason, you feel extra fatigued for no reason, “old” pains may come back in order to be address by the ABC. Sometimes it can be quite uncomfortable. And while all this is going on parts of your body are working better than they have been.

Now here is where Jesse and I differ. He seems to think unwinding, ABC and strengthening mm are enough. I think we need to learn how to use our bodies in the most efficient manner. We also need to activate /wakeup muscles that we haven’t been using due to our misalignments. This is where I believe Pilates can be very useful-it seems Pilates is a very good guide as to how to move your body, which muscles to use. Then you can take the principles of Pilates and apply them to other activities-weight training, running, yoga, etc.

I have become a big fan of kettlebells

The fallacy of treating by x-ray:

If you take full spine x-rays of someone sitting and standing and compare the spine you will see differences in the curves. Therefore, if you have a doctor determining the treatment by x-rays, which x-ray should they use? The answer is the sitting x-rays as you aren’t using your leg muscles to help you stay upright. Treating by x-ray doesn’t allow respect for the body’s process of unwinding or recognize compensations verses primary biomechanical breakdowns.